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How to Cite a Museum Exhibit, Label, or Artifact

One afternoon in a museum can produce four different sources: the object on the wall, the label beside it, the exhibition that put it there, and the catalog in the shop. Each has a different author and a different template. This guide follows the APA Style artwork examples, the MLA Style Center's posts on images viewed firsthand or online, wall text, and museum exhibitions, and the artwork and exhibition-catalog rules of The Chicago Manual of Style, 18th edition, summarized in the Chicago citation guides. The single-style deep dives are How to Cite an Image or Artwork in APA 7 and How to Cite a Painting, Photograph, or Artwork in MLA.

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A stack of old books beside a lit desk lamp
Photo: Jez Timms, Wikimedia Commons (CC0)
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Quick Answer: cite a museum exhibit, label, or artifact

Cite the object under the artist, with its title, date, and the museum and city; add the museum's URL only if you consulted the online collection record. Cite a wall label or exhibition text as a separate, untitled document whose author is the museum, or which begins with a description such as Wall text for…. Cite the exhibition under its title with its run dates and venue, and cite the printed catalog as a book. APA 7 wants a bracketed medium after the title and the city, state, and country after the museum. MLA 9 puts the year and the museum in the publication-date and location slots, with a comma between them for an object seen in person. Chicago 18 usually describes the object in the text and cites it in a note only when you need one; catalogs are cited as books and wall text as unpublished museum documents.

Templates

APA 7 artwork, seen in person:

Artist, A. A. (Year). Title of work [Medium]. Museum Name, City, State, Country.

APA 7 label or wall text:

[Wall text for Title of work by Artist Name]. (Year or n.d.). Museum Name, City, State, Country.

MLA 9 artwork, seen in person:

Artist Last Name, First Name. Title of Work. Year, Museum Name, City.

MLA 9 wall text:

Wall text for Title of Work, by Artist Name. Museum Name, City.

Chicago 18 note for an artwork:

1. Artist Name, Title of Work, Year, medium, dimensions, Museum Name, City.

Chicago 18 exhibition catalog (bibliography):

Author Last Name, First Name. Title of Catalog. Publisher, Year. Published in conjunction with an exhibition of the same title, presented at Museum Name, City, Month Day, Year–Month Day, Year.

Decide what you are actually citing before you pick a template. If you describe the brushwork, you are citing the painting. If you quote the sentence about the sitter's identity, you are citing the museum's label, and the museum wrote it, not the painter. If your argument is about how the show grouped its objects, the exhibition is the source. If you read the essay in the catalog, cite the catalog as a book with its own author and page numbers. The how to cite an image examples cover the first case only.

Which template each museum source takes
What you usedAuthorTreat it asDate
The painting, sculpture, or artifact itselfThe artist or maker; the title if unknownA visual work in a collectionYear or circa date the museum gives
Wall label, panel, or audio-guide textThe museum (or a description in the author slot)An untitled unpublished documentExhibition year, or n.d. for permanent collection labels
The exhibition as a wholeThe exhibition title (curator optional in APA)An event with run dates and a venueRun dates
The exhibition catalogThe catalog's author or editorA bookPublication year
The museum's online collection recordThe artist for the object; the museum for its commentaryThe artwork with a URL, or a webpageObject date; page date or n.d.

APA 7: artist, year, title, bracketed medium, museum

APA 7 §10.14 treats museum artwork as a visual work: the artist is the author, the year the work was made is the date, the title is italic sentence case, a bracketed description of the medium follows the title, and the museum with its city, state or province, and country is the source. The APA Style artwork page gives Grant Wood's American Gothic both ways: no URL when the example is the object in the room, the collection URL when the example is the museum's website. The bracket is flexible — [Painting], [Oil on canvas], [Sculpture], [Woodblock print], [Textile] — and an untitled object gets a bracketed description in place of the title.

Artwork viewed in person

APA 7, works in the Metropolitan Museum of Art

Reference list, painting with a circa date:

Vermeer, J. (ca. 1662). Young woman with a water pitcher [Painting]. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY, United States.

Parenthetical:

(Vermeer, ca. 1662)

Narrative:

Vermeer (ca. 1662) lights the map on the back wall with the same window that lights the pitcher.

Reference list, dated painting:

Leutze, E. (1851). Washington crossing the Delaware [Oil on canvas]. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY, United States.

Parenthetical:

(Leutze, 1851)

Reference list, artifact with no known maker:

Sampler [Embroidered linen]. (1789). The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY, United States.

Parenthetical (title moves into the author position):

(Sampler, 1789)

The same object on the museum website

Nothing changes except the URL. The artist and date stay those of the original work; the museum stays the source. Use the museum's own object page, never a Google Images result or an image-hosting site. If you cite the museum's commentary on the object rather than the object, the museum is the author and the entry is a webpage, as the second pair below shows.

APA 7, online collection record

Reference list, the artwork consulted online:

Vermeer, J. (ca. 1662). Young woman with a water pitcher [Painting]. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY, United States. https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/437881

Parenthetical:

(Vermeer, ca. 1662)

Reference list, the museum's text about the artwork:

The Metropolitan Museum of Art. (n.d.). Young woman with a water pitcher. https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/437881

Parenthetical:

(The Metropolitan Museum of Art, n.d.)

Exhibition label or wall text

A label is an unsigned, untitled document. APA's general rule for a work with no author moves the title — here a bracketed description — into the author position, and its rule for undated works supplies (n.d.); a label in a dated temporary exhibition can take the exhibition year instead. The museum and its location are the source. Because the description is long, use it once in full and then shorten it in later citations, keeping the brackets. If the museum publishes the same label text on its website, cite the webpage with the museum as author instead; it is recoverable and shorter.

APA 7, wall labels

Reference list, permanent-collection label:

[Wall text for Washington crossing the Delaware by Emanuel Leutze]. (n.d.). The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY, United States.

Parenthetical:

([Wall text for Washington crossing the Delaware], n.d.)

Reference list, label in a dated exhibition:

[Wall text for Studies for the Libyan Sibyl by Michelangelo Buonarroti]. (2017). In Michelangelo: Divine draftsman and designer [Exhibition]. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY, United States.

Parenthetical:

([Wall text for Studies for the Libyan Sibyl], 2017)

The exhibition itself, and the catalog

An exhibition is cited under its curator when one is named, with the role in parentheses, or under its title when no curator is credited; the bracket is [Exhibition] and the date is the run, as a year or a year range. The catalog is a book: author or editor, year, italic title, publisher. When the museum is both author and publisher of the catalog, omit the publisher.

APA 7, exhibition and catalog

Reference list, exhibition with a named curator:

Bambach, C. C. (Curator). (2017–2018). Michelangelo: Divine draftsman and designer [Exhibition]. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY, United States.

Parenthetical:

(Bambach, 2017–2018)

Reference list, exhibition with no credited curator:

Michelangelo: Divine draftsman and designer [Exhibition]. (2017–2018). The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY, United States.

Parenthetical:

(Michelangelo, 2017–2018)

Reference list, exhibition catalog:

Bambach, C. C. (2017). Michelangelo: Divine draftsman and designer. The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Parenthetical with a page:

(Bambach, 2017, p. 112)

MLA 9: artist, title, year, museum, city

MLA's firsthand-or-online post explains the one punctuation rule that matters: for an object seen in person, the year sits in the publication-date slot and the museum in the location slot of the same container, so a comma separates them (1975, Museum of Modern Art, New York.). For the same object on the museum's website, the year belongs to the work and the website is a second container, so the year takes a period and the website name is italicized (1975. *MoMA*, www.moma.org/…). Medium is optional and, if given, goes at the end. Titles of paintings, sculptures, and named artifacts are italic; a description of an untitled object is roman.

In person versus online

MLA 9, artwork seen firsthand and online

Works cited, seen in the gallery:

Vermeer, Johannes. Young Woman with a Water Pitcher. Circa 1662, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

Works cited, seen on the museum website:

Vermeer, Johannes. Young Woman with a Water Pitcher. Circa 1662. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/437881.

Works cited, with the medium as an optional final element:

Leutze, Emanuel. Washington Crossing the Delaware. 1851, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Oil on canvas.

Works cited, artifact with no known maker:

Sampler. 1789, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Embroidered linen.

In-text:

(Vermeer) — or (Vermeer, Young Woman) if two works by Vermeer appear in the list

Wall text and labels

The wall-text post starts the entry with a description — Wall text for, the work's title, and by the artist — and then gives the container: the exhibition with its run dates and venue for a temporary show, or just the museum and city for a permanent-collection label. Quote the label only when the museum's wording is the evidence; when you are merely identifying the object, cite the object.

MLA 9, wall text

Works cited, permanent-collection label:

Wall text for Washington Crossing the Delaware, by Emanuel Leutze. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

Works cited, label in a temporary exhibition:

Wall text for Studies for the Libyan Sibyl, by Michelangelo Buonarroti. Michelangelo: Divine Draftsman and Designer, 13 Nov. 2017-12 Feb. 2018, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

In-text (first words of the description, no quotation marks):

(Wall text for Washington Crossing the Delaware)

The exhibition as a container, and the exhibition itself

When you saw the object in a temporary show, the artwork-from-an-exhibition post makes the exhibition the container: its italic title, its run dates, the venue, and the city. When the show itself is your subject, the museum-exhibition post cites it under its title with the same dates and venue.

MLA 9, exhibition entries

Works cited, artwork seen in a dated exhibition:

Michelangelo Buonarroti. Studies for the Libyan Sibyl. 1510-11. Michelangelo: Divine Draftsman and Designer, 13 Nov. 2017-12 Feb. 2018, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

Works cited, the exhibition itself:

Michelangelo: Divine Draftsman and Designer. 13 Nov. 2017-12 Feb. 2018, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

In-text for the exhibition:

(Michelangelo)

Museum catalogs

A catalog is a book, and the art-catalog post cites it as one: author or editor, italic title, the museum or press as publisher, year. An essay inside it is a chapter in an edited collection. Use the book citation generator for these.

MLA 9, catalog entries

Works cited, catalog with an author:

Bambach, Carmen C. Michelangelo: Divine Draftsman and Designer. Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2017.

Works cited, essay in an edited catalog:

Okafor, Adaeze. "Drawing as Rehearsal." Lines of Thought: Renaissance Drawings from the Collection, edited by Marta Feldstein, Lakeshore Art Museum, 2024, pp. 31-47.

In-text:

(Bambach 112); (Okafor 35)

Chicago 18: describe the object in the text, cite the museum's publications in notes

Chicago's rule for paintings, sculpture, and other artwork is that the identifying information — artist, title, date, medium, holding institution — is usually given in the running text rather than in a note or bibliography, and that a note is supplied only when the discussion calls for one. When you do write the note, the order is artist, italic title, date, medium, dimensions if useful, institution, city, and a URL if you consulted the collection online. Chicago treats a printed exhibition catalog as a book and lets you add Published in conjunction with the exhibition… after the publication data. Wall text is an unpublished museum document and is cited descriptively in a note. All three patterns follow the Notes and Bibliography citation guide; the artwork note is a Chicago 18 form, and CMOS 17 users will find the same elements in the same order.

Artwork in a note, and when it goes in the bibliography

Chicago 18, artworks

In the text, with no note needed:

Vermeer's Young Woman with a Water Pitcher (ca. 1662, oil on canvas, Metropolitan Museum of Art) sets the pitcher's brass against the map's paper.

Note, when one is wanted:

1. Johannes Vermeer, Young Woman with a Water Pitcher, ca. 1662, oil on canvas, 18 × 16 in. (45.7 × 40.6 cm), Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

Note, object consulted online:

2. Emanuel Leutze, Washington Crossing the Delaware, 1851, oil on canvas, 149 × 255 in. (378.5 × 647.7 cm), Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/11417.

Shortened note:

3. Leutze, Washington Crossing the Delaware.

Bibliography (only if your instructor wants artworks listed):

Leutze, Emanuel. Washington Crossing the Delaware. 1851. Oil on canvas, 149 × 255 in. (378.5 × 647.7 cm). Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/11417.

Wall text and labels

Chicago has no fixed template for a label, so build the note from what identifies it: the museum as author, a description of the label, the gallery if it helps, the exhibition and its dates if the label belonged to a temporary show, and the date you saw it. Labels rarely belong in a bibliography; a note is the whole citation, as with other unpublished, unretrievable material.

Chicago 18, wall text

Note, permanent-collection label:

4. Metropolitan Museum of Art, wall text for Emanuel Leutze, Washington Crossing the Delaware, gallery 760, New York, viewed March 3, 2026.

Note, label in a temporary exhibition:

5. Metropolitan Museum of Art, wall text for Michelangelo Buonarroti, Studies for the Libyan Sibyl, in Michelangelo: Divine Draftsman and Designer, New York, November 13, 2017–February 12, 2018.

Shortened note:

6. Metropolitan Museum of Art, wall text for Leutze, Washington Crossing the Delaware.

Exhibition catalogs and the exhibition itself

Chicago 18, catalog and exhibition

Note, catalog:

7. Carmen C. Bambach, Michelangelo: Divine Draftsman and Designer (Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2017), 112.

Bibliography, catalog:

Bambach, Carmen C. Michelangelo: Divine Draftsman and Designer. Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2017. Published in conjunction with an exhibition of the same title, presented at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, November 13, 2017–February 12, 2018.

Note, essay in an edited catalog:

8. Adaeze Okafor, "Drawing as Rehearsal," in Lines of Thought: Renaissance Drawings from the Collection, ed. Marta Feldstein (Lakeshore Art Museum, 2024), 35.

Note, the exhibition as an event:

9. Michelangelo: Divine Draftsman and Designer, exhibition, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, November 13, 2017–February 12, 2018.

Chicago author-date

Author-date papers still describe artworks in the text; only the catalog and any museum webpage go into the reference list, with the year after the author. See the Author-Date citation guide.

Chicago 18 author-date

In-text, catalog:

(Bambach 2017, 112)

Reference list, catalog:

Bambach, Carmen C. 2017. Michelangelo: Divine Draftsman and Designer. Metropolitan Museum of Art. Published in conjunction with an exhibition of the same title, presented at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, November 13, 2017–February 12, 2018.

In-text, artwork (if a parenthetical is wanted):

(Leutze 1851)

Reference list, artwork:

Leutze, Emanuel. 1851. Washington Crossing the Delaware. Oil on canvas, 149 × 255 in. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/11417.

Online collection versus in-person viewing

You stood in front of it

  • APA: no URL; museum, city, state, country.
  • MLA: year, comma, museum, city — one container.
  • Chicago: describe in the text; note with institution and city, no URL.
  • Use the date and title from the label or the museum's printed guide, not from memory.
  • For a temporary show, note the exhibition and its dates; the object may have gone home.

You used the museum's website

  • APA: same entry plus the object-page URL; the museum is still the source.
  • MLA: year, period, italic website name, URL — a second container.
  • Chicago: add the URL at the end of the note or bibliography entry.
  • Cite the museum as author only for its commentary, not for the object.
  • Never cite a Google Images, Pinterest, or Wikipedia copy in place of the collection record.

Quick comparison

Museum sources in the three styles
SourceAPA 7MLA 9Chicago 18
Artwork seen in personArtist. (Year). Title [Medium]. Museum, City, State, Country.Artist. Title. Year, Museum, City.In the text, or a note: Artist, Title, Year, medium, Museum, City.
Artwork on the museum siteSame, plus the object URLArtist. Title. Year. Site, URL.Same note, plus the URL
Wall label[Wall text for Title]. (n.d.). Museum, City, State, Country.Wall text for Title, by Artist. Museum, City.Note only: Museum, wall text for Artist, Title, gallery, City, viewed date.
ExhibitionCurator (Curator). (Years). Title [Exhibition]. Museum, City, State, Country.Title. Run dates, Museum, City.In the text, or a note: Title, exhibition, Museum, City, run dates.
CatalogAuthor. (Year). Title. Publisher.Author. Title. Publisher, Year.Author. Title. Publisher, Year. Published in conjunction with…
In-text form(Artist, Year); (Bambach, 2017, p. 112)(Artist); (Bambach 112)Note number, or (Bambach 2017, 112)

Common mistakes

  • Citing the museum as the author of a painting. The artist is the author; the museum is the source or location.
  • Citing the painting when you quoted the label. The museum wrote the label; cite it as wall text.
  • Adding a URL to an object you saw in person. Every style reserves the URL for the online record you actually used.
  • Using MLA website punctuation for a gallery visit. An object seen in person takes a comma after the year and then the museum; the online record takes a period after the year, an italic website name, and the URL.
  • Dropping the bracketed medium in APA or putting it in italics. It is roman text in square brackets after the italic title.
  • Inventing a year for an object the museum dates ca. Keep the circa and cite it as the museum does; see How to Cite a Source with No Date.
  • Putting an artwork in a Chicago bibliography by default. Chicago describes it in the text and adds a note when needed; list it only if your instructor asks.
  • Treating the catalog as the exhibition. The catalog is a book with an author and pages; the exhibition is an event with run dates.
  • Citing a photograph of the object from a textbook as if you saw the object. Cite the textbook and its plate or figure number, as in How to Cite an Image or Artwork in APA 7.

Format the museum citation

The artwork generator builds the artist–title–year–museum entry in APA, MLA, or Chicago and adds the URL only when you give it one. Use the book generator for the catalog, and write the wall-text description by hand from the templates above.

Artwork citation generator →Book citation generator →In-text citation generator →

Frequently asked questions

Who is the author when I cite a painting in a museum?
The artist. In all three styles the entry begins with the artist's name, the museum appears later as the holding institution or location, and the museum's website is added only when you used the online record. The museum becomes the author only when you cite something the museum wrote, such as a wall label or the text on its collection page.
How do I cite the label next to an artwork?
As a separate unsigned document. APA begins with a bracketed description in the author position, uses (n.d.) or the exhibition year, and gives the museum and its location. MLA begins with Wall text for, the work's title, and by the artist, then the exhibition or museum. Chicago cites it in a note with the museum as author, a description of the label, the gallery or exhibition, and the date you saw it.
Do I include the URL if I saw the work in person?
No. The URL identifies the version you consulted, and a gallery visit has no URL. Add the museum's object-page address only when you worked from the online collection record. Never substitute a search-engine, Wikipedia, or social-media copy of the image for the museum's own page.
How do I cite an artifact with no known maker, such as a sampler or a vessel?
Start with the title or a description. APA moves the italic title into the author position and keeps the bracketed medium: Sampler [Embroidered linen]. (1789). MLA starts with the title or a roman description, then the year, museum, and city. Chicago describes the object in the text or a note beginning with its title, followed by the date, medium, and museum. Do not write Anonymous or Unknown as the author.
How do I cite an exhibition catalog?
As a book. APA: Bambach, C. C. (2017). Michelangelo: Divine draftsman and designer. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. MLA: Bambach, Carmen C. Michelangelo: Divine Draftsman and Designer. Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2017. Chicago: the same book entry, optionally followed by Published in conjunction with an exhibition of the same title and the run dates. An essay inside the catalog is a chapter in an edited book.
Does an artwork go in a Chicago bibliography?
Usually not. Chicago gives the identifying details in the text and adds a note only when the discussion needs one; artworks are generally omitted from the bibliography. Include an entry if your instructor or publisher requires all cited works to be listed, using the artist, title, date, medium, institution, city, and URL if consulted online.
What date do I use for a work the museum dates approximately?
The museum's own date, including its qualifier. APA writes (ca. 1662) in both the reference and the in-text citation. MLA writes Circa 1662 in the date slot. Chicago writes ca. 1662 in a note. Do not round to a decade or drop the qualifier; a circa date is a reasoned approximation, not a missing date.
How do I cite a work I saw in a temporary exhibition that has since closed?
In MLA, make the exhibition the container: the work's title, then the italic exhibition title, its run dates, the venue, and the city. In APA, cite the work under its artist with its permanent home as the source; cite the exhibition separately under its title or curator if the show itself matters. In Chicago, describe the object in the text and mention the exhibition and dates there or in the note.